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Via Rail cancels some corridor service over the Day of Protest

Posted by Scott Tribe on June 28, 2007, at 4:41 pm |

I’m not particularly surprised at this, nor will I be surprised to see the howls of outrage from certain segments of the right-wing blogging community because of it. I’m not referring to mere grumbling about it; what I mean is I will expect to see calls for the military to be called in and the SWAT team and so on. Some of these folks froth at the mouth over wanting confrontation, while others haven’t needed much of an excuse to slag the Native community. This will trigger some interesting reading posts over there, I’m sure, going on past history.

You have Harper's mentality regarding First Nations and their issues, so I am surprised.

And laugh all you want about my statement but it's true. It actually irritates me because instead of a peaceful protest to raise awareness the lead story will not be the hundreds marching but the railways and highways being blocked and police barracades and that'll be the impression the average Canadian has on First Nations. Completely ignoring the fact that the Honourable Stephane Dion participated in the March in Ottawa along with other leaders and organizations. No, we'll have the Shawn Brant fiasco instead. But like any other group of people, you'll have a fraction of militants who want to do it their way and that justifies attitudes such as yours.

So what do you suggest to bring First Nations concerns to the forefront, Rachel? Negotiating hasn't worked, diplomacy and talking hasn't worked. Instead, the Kelowna Accord gets shelved and cuts to programming that affects First Nations' issues. With the highest smoking rates of any group, this federal government cut the tobacco strategy to First Nations Health. What kind of message does that send?

The Mohawk protestors are not a part of the main National Day of Protest that calls for PEACEFUL protest and informational sessions to raise First Nations' concerns.

It's ignorant to say that thousands of Canadians don't have anything to do with this conflict. They are involved, whether they like it or not. The members of governments – at all levels – that they vote for are directly involved in this. Ignoring the problem hasn't worked for a century and it's come down to one day of "inconvenience".

It is inconvenient for thousands of First Nations to not have access to adequate education, housing, health care, drinking water, etc.

So some people may be delayed an hour during a peaceful march. First Nations have been inconvenienced by inaction for decades.

But you go right ahead and play the victim. It seems to suit you well.

Yeah right! No one is being taken hostage on the first long weekend of the summer where the kids are out of school and families plan on traveling along the most utilized corridor of the entire country. No, we're not being taken hostage at all. Mushroom, do you actually believe your own rhetoric? Come on! Can we agree that this is a huge inconvenience for thousands of canadians who do not have anything to do with this conflict?

"I don't like being made a hostage. Not for a strike, not for natives, not for anything!"
A day of action suggests that peaceful disobedience may be used to protest against a certain grievance.

There is a difference between setting a barricade in Deseronto and having someone calling himself Lasagna carrying an AK-47 calling for a neo-Trotskyist revolt against the Canadian government.

In a democracy, there needs to be a recognition of a right to strike to encourage the collective bargaining process. The collective bargaining process for native rights is broken. I don't consider a planned peaceful day of action to be something that I am held hostage with.